Humble Pie

The weather forecast is for a major cold front to move into the area on Tuesday afternoon - rains and dropping temperatures.  Still reeling (no pun intended) from the outstanding smallmouth bite on Saturday I decided that my best chance to duplicate was to go first thing this morning before the front arrived.  The rain was not forecasted to arrive until late morning, it was a balmy 60 F, and I felt sure I was in for an awesome morning.  I got on the water at about 6:30 a.m. before first daylight - I started in Rowe Cove, just in case the stripers wanted to surrender to a top water or two before I targeted the smallmouth.  The rockfish were breaking this morning better than Saturday, but were - as usual for this time of year - all over the place breaking once and then moving on.  I could never get one to notice my redfin, so I gave it about thirty minutes or so and then got bait.  I got my favorite freshwater bait - perfect sized thread fin shad (Dorosoma petenense) I was thrilled at the prospect that awaited me.  I ran over to the rock pile at Thief Neck armed with the rig of choice; a standard bobber with a 3' 4 lb test Seaguar flourocarbon leader on 10 lb test Power Pro and a 1/0 Owner Mutu Light circle hook.  This rig was delivered on my new 7' Temple Fork Outfitters ML matched with my Shimano Stella 4000 FB. I fished the same stretches I fished just three days ago and only boated one smallmouth and one drum.  I lost 4 others, but the bite was just nothing like it was on Saturday. It just goes to show you as soon as you start thinking you've got it all figured out, it changes.  Nothing like a good day on the water to keep you humble :)

Fall Rockfish Are Making Me Crazy

After fishing down the lake this morning (see Humble Pie), I went to work for a few hours.  I just can't get these ferocious stripers out of my mind.  I talked with a friend of mine in church this past Sunday and he told me he saw them breaking in the back of the cove around Roane Co. Park.  So, after I got home from work and discovered that the girls all had something going on and Crystal had to work late, I decided to take a look at Roane Co. Park for myself.  I launched at Caney Creek, got good bait in one throw (shad minnows are all over Caney Creek right now) and headed over to the swimming area and public pier.  Right away I noticed healthy (10 - 15 lb) rockfish breaking on the monstrous schools of minnows.   I had a rod with a 9" redfin, and a rod with a poppin' cork and circle hook (for basic free-lining). The stripers were breaking with 25' of the boat every minute or so, but they would just do a ravenous roll and then be gone - several times I was standing cocked and ready to cast waiting for a fish to break and would cast right in the middle of the swirl within seconds of the roll and nothing - never got a bite.  It was very exciting, but exasperating at the same time.  Man...maybe someday  I'll figure out how to get stripers in this mode to bite.  It's part of what makes this whole thing so addicting to me.  I can't wait to get back out after 'em.

Classic November Smallmouths

5 .5 lb Smallie

4 lb Bronzeback

4.5 lb Smallmouth

4 lb Smallmouth

Scott and I got up with the chickens this morning and navigated the pre-dawn fog to partake in the first light striper top-water bite on Watts Bar this morning.  The lunar calendar was in our favor and said fishing should be excellent today - especially from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Boy was it ever right!  The moon was full last night, and will actually be at peak tonight. We started in "Row" Cove looking for packs of silver kings cruising the shallows for shad.  The minnows have been congregating in the backs of coves recently in search of the warmest water they can find.  The surface water temperature was around 58 F, prime for stripers roaming around like a pack of wolves looking to put the feed bag on.  There was a little bit of surface action, but nothing significant - just an occasional largemouth or white bass chasing minnows near the shore line.  We worked our way into the very back of the cove where we saw feeding fish working some shad minnows over.  I was throwing a 9" redfin and picked up an extremely aggressive 1 1/2 lb largemouth (talk about your eyes being bigger than your stomach!), and then a nice 2 lb white bass on a shad colored Excalibur lipless crankbait.   At about 8:30 a.m. we decided to get bait and start looking for smallmouth.   We headed over to the rock pile at Thief Neck Island.  I pretty much always fish a float when using live bait in this area because of the jagged rock bottom.  Fishing on the bottom here will almost always guarantee a hang up.  Right away we started getting bites and boating smallmouth.  The fish were aggressive and feeding. The rig of choice was a standard bobber with a 3' 4 lb test flourocarbon leader on 10 lb test Power Pro and a 1/0 Owner Mutu Light circle hook.  This rig was delivered on my new 7' Temple Fork Outfitters ML matched with my Shimano Stella 4000 FB.  We caught a 5 1/2, a 4 1/2, two 4's, a 3, and multiple 2 lbers. All tolled we caught over 20 smallmouth.  The best 5 weighing a total of 21 lbs!  This easily the best bunch of smallmouth we've ever caught in one trip - A great way to break in my new TFO rod!

Cooling Water Temperatures Means Roving Stripers

I had just a couple of hours to fish this afternoon, and my buddy Stuart Row had been catching some nice striped bass in his cove in the afternoons.  As the weather and the water have started cooling off, the shad minnows have moved into the shallower coves in desperate search of the warmest water the lake has to offer.  So guess who's following? You got it...the wolf pack of the water, stripers...and of course Big E.  I put in at TWRA's Shady Grove launch, got a nice batch of 3-4" gizzards and ran across the lake to Row Cove.  I rigged up with a poppin' cork, a 3' 15 lb test flourocarbon leader and a 2/0 Owner Mutu Light circle hook on old faithful Shimano Stella 4000 FB on my new 7' 0" ML FWS 703-1 Temple Fork Outfitters spinning rod that I bought yesterday at Edgemoor Sporting Goods in Claxton.  Needless to say I was eager to break in my new rod the right way - inaugurating it with a silver king.  The surface water temperature was 58 F.  Right away I could see the rockfish relentlessly harassing monstrous schools of minnows.  The feeding frenzy had my adrenaline pumping and at one point a striper that was at least 15 lbs came completely out of the water about 10 feet from the boat as he recklessly exploded on a school of gizzards.  The stripers were moving around so quickly and covering so much water that it was evident that chasing them was pointless.  Consequently, I strategically positioned the boat where I felt they would most likely surface again.  In the two hours I had to work with, I caught one striper about 5 lbs and lost two others.  It was pretty frustrating because the fish were everywhere but just too spread out to really be able to pinpoint.  I did take the one I caught home and enjoyed a fresh fish dinner.  Striped bass are becoming one of my favorite table fare fishes as well as one of the most exciting freshwater sport fish to catch.

The Early Days - Redfish #1

Here's an old picture I found of me with my first redfish! Not quite a slot red, but it was great start.  I caught it off a pier at Cedar Key, Florida - It was probably 1973 - 1974.  I also threw in a  shot of me with a blue crab.  We used to love crabbing off the piers with hoop nets.